[58] Hutchinson's Cumberland, vol. i, p. 314. The arms borne by a junior branch of the Blencowes are 'Gules, a quarter argent,' the original coat of the family. The baron of Graystock's grant is sometimes borne as a quartering. The arms of his lordship, from which it is borrowed, were 'Barry of six, _argent_ and _azure_, over all three _chaplets_ gules.' According to a family tradition, Adam de Blencowe was standard-bearer to the Baron. Vide West's Antiquities of Furness, quoted by Hutchinson. [59] Montagu's Study of Heraldry, Appendix A. [60] One of the earliest grants of Arms preserved in the Heralds' Coll. is printed in the Appendix. It is of the time of Edward III. [61] "Nihil sibi insignii accidisse quia nec ipse nec majores sui in bello unquam descendissent." Waterhouse, quoted by Dallaway. [62] Dallaway. [63] This was called _dimidiation_. [64] The dimidiated coat represented on p. 36, is not the arms of a family, but those of the corporation of Hastings. Here three demi-lions are conjoined with three sterns of antient ships--a composition compared with which the griffin, cockatrice, and every other _hybrid_ of a herald's imagination sinks into insignificance. That this singular shield is a dimidiation of two antient coats cannot be doubted. Three ships, in all probability, formed the original arms of the town--the dexter-half of the royal arms of England having been superimposed in commemoration of some great immunity granted to this antiently important corporation. [65] Query--Might not some of our English maidens, who are verging somewhat on the _antique_, resort to this mode of advertising for a husband with advantage? The odious appellation of "old maids" would then give place to the more courteous one of "Ladies of the half-blank shield." [66] Nisbet's Essay on Armories, p. 70. [67] A lineal ancestor of Sir John Shelley, Bart. The date of the lady's death is 1513. [68] In the great hall at Fawsley, co. Northampton, the seat of Sir Charles Knightly, Bart., is a shield containing the unprecedented number of 334 quarterings. Vide Baker's Northampton, vol. i, p. 386. [69] Vide Appendix. [70] In the Temple Church, London. Tomb of Sir Geoffrey de Magnaville. Vide woodcut at the head of the Preface. [71] Boke of St. A. and Dall. [72] The arms of the See of Hereford at this day are identical with those of Thomas Cantilupe, who held the episcopate in the thirteenth century, and was canonized as St. Thomas of Hereford, 34{o} Edward I.